Promises Spoken part 2

Yesterday I left off with China changing some of it's adoption procedures.

With these changes we knew that if we wanted to still adopt from China we would not be able to use our social worker. Since adopting Jackson we have come to love our social worker. We feel that we have built such a relationship with her that if we ever needed to seek her advice on adoption and our family dynamics she would be honest and caring.

With that being said we had to make the choice to not pursue an adoption from China.

We began to ask our social worker questions about other adoptions. Adopting from places that we said we'd never go. And slowly God began working on our hearts and breaking down barriers that we had built.

During our entire process of adopting Jackson the joy that we felt simply from knowing that we had heard God's call and CHOSE to obey Him was overwhelming! And with that experience we knew that we couldn't turn our backs on God's voice.

So I emailed our SW and asked her if she could change our Homestudy to a domestic adoption. She was thrilled!

But it wasn't just a domestic adoption, God had asked us to go where we said we'd never go! And we accepted the call excitedly!

We began the process to adopt from U.S. foster care. We began looking at sibling groups on AdoptUSKids. And there was an older boy and girl we kept coming back to.

We begin making phone calls to sign up for the MAPP classes. By this time we had stopped looking at waiting children on WACAP's list. We found out that the classes would be offered on Saturdays for over a month and would be all day long!

And so the struggles began. The classes basically were for the entire soccer season that involves out of town competitive games for 2 children in 2 and sometimes three different places each Saturday, not including Jackson needing to be watched.

Having adopted before and having read numerous adoption blogs, we knew that the adoption road is not always a smooth one. Sometimes it takes twists and turns that you don't expect.

Trustworthy, available babysitters are not easy to come by. And so we contemplated and prayed.

I continued to make phone calls to register for the classes and found out that the Saturday classes would not be available but the Tues/Thurs classes were going to be open instead.

And so we came to a standstill. Because of the rules for the attendance for the classes we knew we weren't going to be able to take the classes.   Kurt's job requires him to be at Commission meetings every other Tuesday which would put us over the limit of what he could miss from the classes.

There we were!

In a place we said we'd never go!

Asking God what He had planned for our family.

Because at this point we were willing to go anywhere He called us.

I do believe that sometimes God asks us to do the impossible simply to give us an opportunity to obey Him.

We knew this when we began our adoption with Jackson. We knew we had to prepare the big kids that even though we knew God had called us to adopt Jackson, China could still say no. And if they did, then we had done what we had been called to do. And that is when Sydney at age 8 says to us "you mean like Abraham and Isaac?" Exactly!

Promises spoken to a mother's heart.

Promises spoken to Abraham and then later called to do the impossible and to trust Him!

To simply go where God calls you even if you can't see beyond the next turn.

So we obeyed.

And God turned the corner!